If you've been trying to buy more gold lately in order to build up your investments in that area, you may have begun to wonder if you're putting too much into gold -- in other words, if you've got too many eggs in one metal basket. Investing in gold can be a very valuable (no pun intended) strategy, but diversification within gold is a good idea, especially if you want to buy a lot of it. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can sink your cash into gold, and those ways make it easier to buy a lot while still keeping it safe.

Different Sizes and Types of Coins

Your first step should be to look at the coins you have. If they're all the same size and type -- think all Canadian Maple Leaves of the same weight, for example -- then you run the risk of something happening to that brand, for lack of a better word. It's happened before; for example, sales of the South African Krugerrand were banned in the United States for a few years in protest of South Africa's policy of apartheid.

Finding coins with similar value can make trading too, since it can be hard to find buyers who have enough cash to give you the proper dollar figure for various sizes. To make things easier, try to diversify your coin portfolio.  Start buying coins from different countries and in different sizes (or weights, if you prefer). Small coins can be very handy because they allow you to get some cash from buyers who are able to provide smaller amounts of money.

Gold Chains and Charms

Next, look at how much gold jewelry you have -- real gold, not plated. Having several small gold chains and charms can also be a help for two reasons. One is that these are very easy to find and store, and they're often available for reasonable amounts of money up front. The other reason is that you can avoid some of the more paranoid issues associated with investing in gold, such as gold confiscation, which often focuses more on coins (based on Roosevelt's Executive Order 6102) than on jewelry.

Do buy gold jewelry from a reputable source. There are a lot of fakes out there using forged fineness stamps. "14K Italy" is a notorious fake stamp that shows up on a lot of jewelry; while there is legitimate 14-karat gold jewelry from Italy, you may want to look only for higher karat amounts and different countries of origin.

ETF Shares

Finally, if you really want to invest in a lot of gold, look into exchange-traded funds in gold. Normally, ETFs focus on a variety of investments, but in gold's case, the ETFs focus just on gold. A company normally has many, many pieces of gold stocked away in a vault, and you purchase shares of that stockpile. The advantage here is that you can purchase a lot of gold shares without having to worry about storing or insuring the physical gold itself. The disadvantage is that, since this gold is not in your possession, you can't sell it on the spot if you need cash fast.

One thing you might want to do is go to a good coin store or gold dealer and talk to them about the different investments available. They might be able to help you figure out which investments would be best and in what proportions. Contact a business, such as Desert Jewelry Mart & Coins, for more information.